[FIXED] Google Music site no longer plays music

[GµårÐïåñ]

I have comcast at home - works no problem on my macbook pro and my xp machine.
At work I've got a w7 machine, I use firefox 10.0.2 on all the machines.

I know this is not an internet/service blockage issue because Google Music will play here at work using internet explorer (ew). We have a firewall installed that allows certain users to see blocked content if they log in, so anything that is blocked would just reroute you to a screen prompting you to log in. He has assured me that Google Music isn't one of those blocked services. Pandora, facebook, hulu, netflix streaming, etc - those are blocked. I contacted IT and he said that he checked to make sure I had the latest version of flash installed. When he disabled no script, GM worked on Firefox. When he enabled NS, even "allowing all" on the GM page, it kept giving the the error and GM didn't work. That seems like a pretty clear cut basis for diagnosis.

Ok, gotcha, good to know. That at least eliminates content filtering. Now we need to see what on the client side is messing with it as its not always reproducible, it has to be something in the fringe case which takes more digging. I have contacted Giorgio to take a look and see what he can dig up, if anything.

Now as far as disabling it making it work and enabling it make it break being a clear indicator of cause/effect for debugging purposes, your guy couldn't be more wrong. In nearly 3 decades of doing this, I have seen cases where EVERYONE thought it was one thing and it ended up being something benign and asinine that had NOTHING to do with it. This is why its called debugging, if it was just observable like this, then anyone would be a support or "IT guy". Not saying its not, for all we know it could be the recent google surrogates that were introduced to battle google's ever expanding intrusion but just because I have a headache, doesn't mean its because there is a guy riding a bike in china. Its a false assumption to associate cause/effect without ACTUAL technical framework or by merely observing a coincidence.

Now all that being said, I have asked Giorgio to take a look, he is the guy who works with the guts of this baby, so he will be able to shed more light. For all we know its a surrogate that is messing with it and tightening it or rewriting it might fix it, or it could just be something completely different, we'll see. BTW, just for sake of being thorough, did it start after an update to Fx? did it start after an update to the system itself? did it happen after an update to NS? did it happen after google's self boasting "awesome" interface redesign?

[tc]

Chiming in—I'm seeing the same behavior from Google Music/Firefox/No Script. Google Music gives the "Oops, we have a technical issue" warning "Please refresh this page in your browser to get back to listening to your music. If issues persist, make sure you have Flash enabled and working." when NoScript is enabled. When NoScript is disabled, it works fine. "Allow scripts globally" does not make a difference—you have to completely disable NoScript.

This was an issue before the latest NoScript update (I was seeing this before I applied the update) but *seems* to have corresponded with the most recent FF update.

[therube]

What, how, do you get music in "google music" so that you can play it.
The whole interface, not that I could make much of it, is totally confusing (& scary) to me.
Have no idea where to go or what to do to get music "in there", much less how to go about playing it once it is there.

I am in no way about to download an "app" in order to upload music.
Tried getting some "free" music from (some other domain, whatever it was) but couldn't figure out how to "send" it to google?

[GµårÐïåñ]

@therube, its their attempt to compete with services such as iTunes and Microsoft Marketplace while combining the features of iCloud and Amazon Cloud in one centralized world dominating manner. You buy it in the market place, you have a limited number of your own that you can upload to them and then supposedly you get to listen to them anywhere you go either online, or through your phone or this and that giving them even more information about what you listen to and where and when you do it and on what. Get it now?

[xtina123]

Chiming in—I'm seeing the same behavior from Google Music/Firefox/No Script. Google Music gives the "Oops, we have a technical issue" warning "Please refresh this page in your browser to get back to listening to your music. If issues persist, make sure you have Flash enabled and working." when NoScript is enabled. When NoScript is disabled, it works fine. "Allow scripts globally" does not make a difference—you have to completely disable NoScript.

This was an issue before the latest NoScript update (I was seeing this before I applied the update) but *seems* to have corresponded with the most recent FF update.

FWIW I just went back to FF 9.0.1 and am still having the same issue.

[GµårÐïåñ]

Good to know, thanks for the info, still trying to reproduce with no success, so waiting to see if Giorgio has better luck.

[JGauntt]

I'm also having the same problem. And interesting enough, I had a hard disk problem late on Sunday night (3/3/2012), so I had to repair all that and start with a relatively clean system on Monday morning in which I reinstalled lots and lots of software including all my Firefox add-ons (one of the first of which was of course, NoScript After everything was up and running, I tested Google Music with no problems, I distinctly remember listening to several albums throughout the day Monday. This morning (Wednesday), I accepted a Firefox update and Google Music would not work after that unless I completely disable NoScript. (It does work fine on -bleh- Internet Explorer). My system is Win 7, 64bit, running Firefox 10.0.2 and NoScript 2.3.2 and Flash 11.1.102.63

If there's any other info I can give you or tests I can do for you, let me know.

-- janet

[Tom T.]

This morning (Wednesday), I accepted a Firefox update and Google Music would not work after that unless I completely disable NoScript.

Do you remember what Firefox update? From which version to which?

Or was it an update to an add-on? Which, and from what version number to what new version?

O/T, but useful:

I had a hard disk problem late on Sunday night (3/3/2012), so I had to repair all that and start with a relatively clean system on Monday morning in which I reinstalled lots and lots of software...

Good reason to use so-called "full-disk-image" backups instead of System Restore. (Or in addition to it, but SysRestore can become a real space hog.) You back up the entire hard drive, as-is, to a flash drive, DVD, external hard drive, or whatever. If your hard drive dies, when the new one is installed, all you have to do is boot the machine using the boot CD created from the backup program, then tell it to restore your "image" from a particular date. (Browsing to that location, whether on flash drive, CD-ROM drive, external drive, whatever.)

In a few minutes, the new hard drive is "painted" identically as when the backup "snapshot" was taken, meaning: With all of your software, including Firefox and NoScript, and all of your configurations, custom settings, etc.

I learned this the hard way, as most people do. Having suffered through an irreparable failure to boot due to a corruption issue, I had to go the long way. And immediately shopped for such a backup program. When the HD finally died a couple of years later, the shop swapped it out in five minutes, I took it home, restored the backup, which fortunately was made the day before the failure, and it's almost as if nothing ever happened.

Most such programs allow you to add "incremental" backups, e. g.: You do a full backup on Monday. Next Monday (or however frequently you like), you do an incremental backup, which records *only* that which has changed from the full backup -- changed since the previous Monday, in our example. A week later, you can make a second incremental backup, which records only the changes from the first incremental backup -- and so on.

The benefit is that these incremental backups are much faster and take up much less space. The downside is that if you are restoring from an incremental backup, any preceding incremental backups in the chain must be valid. If any of them is corrupt, the backup fails. These programs generally have a function that tests the validity of the backup created, often automatically after creation if you set that as default.

"Differential backups" always record *all* changes since the full-disk backup, so you can make several of those over time, and not have to worry about whether another one is invalid. They take longer than an incremental, and have a larger footprint, so it's a compromise. Your choice.

Of course, the incremental and differential backup methods will require a rewritable medium like a Flash drive. I usually do a full + 2, 3, or 4 increments, then burn them to read-only CD or DVD, where if stored safely, they are likely to be more durable, and not corruptible unless the disk itself is scratched or whatever. Then I defrag and create a new full-disk backup.

They also usually provide for restoring any data you choose. For example, I once had a message, "Unable to boot. System file xyz.dll is either missing or corrupt. Please reinstall it." Rather than use a full backup that may be some number of days old, I used the program to copy the stored, uncorrupted version of xyz.dll to its place in the system, overwriting the bad file. Reboot, and good to go.

Here is a list of some such programs. It's a good habit to get into, and you'll really be grateful the next time your system dies, or even if you lose some data or a single file. Also, just as it's wise to create a System Restore point before installing any new software (some well-behaved programs do this automatically on install, as does Microsoft Update), it's wise to make one of these backups, either full or incremental, before the new install. If the new program is undesirable, or worse, carries malware or corrupts the system, just restore the image made before the install. Most uninstallers leave numerous scraps and pieces lying around, including Windows Registry entries, and if it carried malware, of course the uninstaller won't uninstall that. Using the previous image is as if you never installed the new thing.

I eventually disabled System Restore, because it vastly increased the time and size of these backups, but that's a *personal* choice, and it requires committing fully to regular disk backups. IMHO. YMMV.

Thanks for the info on the Music issue.

[Tuviah]

I too have been experiencing this issue. Typically I run Win 7 64bit, but I've only been operating with the 32bit version of Firefox. Out of curiosity I downloaded the Nightly version of FF 64bit and updated all the appropriate addons and hey presto Google Play began to work again while No Script was running. The 32bit version of FF can only use Google Play while NoScript is disabled.

Curious but it would appear to be a combination of 64bit OS, 32bit FF, NoScript and Google Play. At least as far as I can tell right now!

-T

[Tom T.]

... Typically I run Win 7 64bit, but I've only been operating with the 32bit version of Firefox. Out of curiosity I downloaded the Nightly version of FF 64bit ... and hey presto Google Play began to work again while No Script was running. The 32bit version of FF can only use Google Play while NoScript is disabled.

Curious but it would appear to be a combination of 64bit OS, 32bit FF, NoScript and Google Play. At least as far as I can tell right now!

Interesting! Can anyone else with an x64 OS replicate this: success with 64-bit Fx, and failure with 32-bit Fx?

(I have only 32-bit, as the useragent below shows.)

[DG42]

I too have been experiencing this issue. Typically I run Win 7 64bit, but I've only been operating with the 32bit version of Firefox. Out of curiosity I downloaded the Nightly version of FF 64bit and updated all the appropriate addons and hey presto Google Play began to work again while No Script was running. The 32bit version of FF can only use Google Play while NoScript is disabled.

Fascinating. I didn't know a 64-bit version of Firefox existed. And while googling around I discovered some alternate browsers based on the latest Firefox builds. So I installed Pale Moon, both 32-bit and 64-bit versions, and Waterfox (only available in 64-bit). Both claim to be optimized compared to the stock Firefox browsers. Google Music did not work on any of these versions (same error message). They don't say which Firefox build the 64-bit versions were based on.

Then I ran Firefox Nightly 13.0a1 (2012-03-08) for 64-bit Windows with NoScript 2.3.4rc1 and it works! My extensions all work and it seems stable to me so far, so I'm just going to use this.

(BTW, Firefox 10.0.2 still doesn't work with the latest NoScript 2.3.4rc1)

[Tom T.]

... And while googling around I discovered some alternate browsers based on the latest Firefox builds. So I installed Pale Moon, both 32-bit and 64-bit versions, and Waterfox (only available in 64-bit). Both claim to be optimized compared to the stock Firefox browsers. Google Music did not work on any of these versions (same error message). They don't say which Firefox build the 64-bit versions were based on.

Interesting, but please note that NoScript developer Giorgio Maone tells us that while NoScript "might" work on other Gecko-based forks, compatibility and support are assured only for Firefox and Seamonkey. So the experience with the 64-bit forks may not tell us much versus Tuviah 's success with 64-bit Firefox Nightly.

Then I ran Firefox Nightly 13.0a1 (2012-03-08) for 64-bit Windows with NoScript 2.3.4rc1 and it works! My extensions all work and it seems stable to me so far, so I'm just going to use this.

Ahhh, as said above.... Thanks for the confirmation. Perhaps now Giorgio can look at the pertinent differences between F64 and F32, and figure out why one works and the other doesn't.

(BTW, Firefox 10.0.2 still doesn't work with the latest NoScript 2.3.4rc1)

Not surprising. AFAIK, the issue hadn't been addressed in any of the recent releases, including development builds. With this new information, perhaps we'll see a fix soon. Thanks again.

[bhorn]

I'm seeing the same problem with FF 10.0.2 and NS 2.3.4. For me it seemed to stop working when Google integrated everything into play.google.com. Even more interesting, sampling a song in the store still works. It only produces the error when you try to play a song from your library.

[therube]

How do you add a song to your library?

Do you need to give credit card information, even for "Free" songs?

[bhorn]

Unfortunately, yes, it appears a Google Wallet account (with some credit/debit card) must be established in order to purchase even "free" songs. I can't fault anyone for not wanting to give their financial details to Google.